Where are they looking at?
Buckingham Palace has been the official residence of the British royal family since 1837, the year in which Queen Victoria began her reign, which lasted until 1901.
The palace works were begun in 1703 by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, for municipal use. However, he acquired the ducal title not by inheritance but by appointment under the regency of Queen Anne. The ducal dignity Sheffield received was the third time it had been bestowed.
The first went to Earl Humphrey Stafford in 1444. During the kingdom of Richard III he lost all his titles, which were regained by his son Edward, executed as a traitor by Henry VIII. The title was extinguished.
The second time the ducal title of Buckingham reappeared in English history was when James I granted it to George Villiers (1623), who had previously been Earl (1617) and Marquess (1618) of the same honour. Again the son of the first duke was the last, and the title was extinguished in 1687.
The third time the ducal title reappeared, it fell to the builder of Buckingham Palace. However, his son was also the last of the saga, as he died in 1735 and the title was lost again.
In 1762, King George III acquired the palace for use as a private residence, and for 75 years after the purchase successive English sovereigns made alterations, which did not stop until 1913, when the main façade, perhaps the best known of the building, was completed.
In the meantime, the ducal dignity was again created, this time linked to that of Chandos, when in 1822 the title of Duke of Buckingham and Chandos was granted to the Earl of Buckingham and Marquis of Chandos. This time the son was able to pass on the title, but the grandson was the third and last holder of the fourth ducal line of Buckingham.
